Tag Archives: Windows Media Center

Microsoft Media Center didn't receive much attention from users as a whole. Its market was niche and moreover, there were better alternatives to it such as the far-famed XMBC. All that changed when Windows 7 perfected the existing Windows Media Center, making it arguably one of the best (if not the best) central application to listen to music, watch videos and movies, and view images. It allows you to create a media library by specifying folders containing different types of data. Apart from all the useful features and an appealing and user-friendly interface, its major drawback is its inability to be portable (unless of course you have a portable device). Remote Potato takes care of this problem, and turns Windows Media Center into a server, allowing you to access your media from any PC with a browser and an internet connection. Just put in your PC’s IP address and gain remote access to your entire media library, eliminating the need to carry media around in a USB flash drive. Keep reading to find how to set it up.
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Relaunch is a portable application which adds specified programs and web apps to Windows Media Center extras. This way one can launch a web application or Windows program from within Windows Media Center. The supported web browsers for launching web applications include Chrome, Opera and Internet Explorer. When assigning an application to WMC extras, you can also choose a image to help you easily identify the app. Relaunch can be pretty useful for WMC enthusiasts who spend a lot of time working on the Windows Media Center. Once an application is added to WMC, you can also assign it to a favorite category (e.g. TV, Music, Extender, Media Libraries and the like) to sort it easily with other Media Center items.
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Windows Media Center plugins provide the option to chip in some extra features that can be used to extend the native functionality. One such plugin is MceWeather, which displays the current weather, weather forecast, and weather map of a selected city or area on your large TV. It was primarily designed for Microsoft Windows Media Center (2005, Vista or 7), but can be used with earlier Windows operating system with Internet Explorer 6 or higher. MceWeather also works on Media Center Extenders like Microsoft XBox360 (which may be connected to a Media Center PC). With MceWeather, you can get instant weather forecasts for coming 4 days and current weather information right on your Media Center TV.
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MacroTube is a plugin for Windows Media Center that enables watching YouTube, DailyMotion and MSN Soapbox videos. This enables enjoying videos from these website on a Media Center TV. MacroTube retains all functionalities provided by supported video streaming websites like YouTube and DailyMotion. Other than searching and streaming videos, you can even sort them by rating, category (entertainment, comedy, education, etc), date and relevance.
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If you’ve been using Windows Media Center to record live TV shows and dramas, you must have noticed that it doesn’t support saving a recorded TV show in any popular media formats such as, MPG/AVI. So, it leaves users with no other option than to stick by with WTV format which is WMC native format for recorded programs. We have written about converting WTV format before but the command line tool was limited. MC-TVConverter is developed to address this very problem by allowing user to convert WTV recorded media files into WMV, MPG, AVI, FLV, DEMUX, and MP4 formats. Moreover, it has an ability to keep user-defined folder under consistent observation, looking for WTV files to convert them without requiring user’s input.
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Even though Windows Media Center offers a nice set of tools bundled in different menus ranging from Extras, Pictures+Videos, to Music, etc., many users find some options & menu items absolutely useless, thus, want to customize the Start menu along with included tools/options as per their liking. Media Center Studio is a tool for users who want to customize their Windows Media Center. It is a WMC customization tool which emulates same layout to let anyone easily change the main menu titles, while options for removing menu items are also provided to keep only most frequently used options/tools.
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Last year in February, Nakodari reviewed SecondRun.tv – a plugin for Windows Media Center to play videos from Hulu, ABC, and other networks directly. It seamlessly integrates with WMC, offering all the essentials to give a best video watching experience. Recently its author updated us with the release of latest version – 2.0. A quick look into new version divulged us a few brilliant improvements, most prominent being an intuitive Channel Builder that enables you to create new channels in SecondRun.tv, it is also possible now to download channels that other users have made open in channel repository.
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Lifextender is a simple plugin for Windows Media Center designed to remove advertisements from recorded TV shows automatically. Generally a sitcom/drama is 20-25 minutes long but considering the full video playback length, it can extends up to 40 minutes due to the inclusion of commercials after regular time interval. Dealing with such situation needs patience or a fast forwarding is required. It is built to help those users who hate the idea of even manually forward the ads and are in need of an application which can root out commercials right from the start.
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Windows Media Center is a nice piece of high-functionality software from Microsoft. While it is aesthetically pleasing and convenient, one issue that users with dual or multiple displays face is the restriction of mouse to only the WMC window, especially when maximized. Maxifier is a free tool that answers this problem, freeing mouse movement even when Windows Media Center is itself running full screen mode.
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If you are a big fan of the Windows Media Center and want it to run smoothly then you should schedule the optimization. The Windows Media Center performs optimization itself to make it run more smoothly, please note that during the time it is performing optimizations, you can not use it.
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Media Browser(formally known as Video Browser) is a personal media aggregator that runs on Microsoft Media Center platform. In layman’s term, it is a media aggregator plug-in for Windows 7/Vista Media Center that takes all you recorded, digital, or ripped media and presents you in a simple and easy-to-use interface.

Lets be straight here, Windows 7 Media Center is an excellent tool to watch videos, news, shows, and more. The same goes with Hulu Desktop that brings thousands of shows at your fingertip. But what is lacking here is the integration of both apps.

Note that we are not talking about integrating Hulu in Windows Media Center, rather we are talking about integrating the ‘Hulu Desktop’ in Media Center.

We hear about various Windows 7 features but forget the most core entertainment feature - Windows 7 Media Center. Just like other features has been enhanced, Media Center has also gotten a fair share of upgrade. But this post is not about what’s new in Windows 7 Media Center, rather it is about a 3rd party plugin called PowerPlaylist.

When Hulu first launched, everyone was calling it a revolution in Internet TV. But visiting their website, browsing through their list of shows, and finally playing it just got a little boring. This is where SecondRun.tv comes in. It is a plugin for Windows Media Center that lets you play videos from Hulu, ABC and other networks directly without having to visit their websites. You can select the shows and navigate through them using Windows Media Center remote control.

Hulu is one of the most popular video sites nowadays, and hearing from my US friends that they watch all their TV shows online doesn’t help to relieve the pain that it’s a region restricted website. The same is the issue with NBC, ABC and also Internet TV in Windows Media Center. While I may never understand why they have to restrict access to users outside of the US, I have understood a way to access them easily.
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AddictiveTips is a tech blog focused on helping users find simple solutions to their everyday problems. We review the best desktop, mobile and web apps and services out there, in addition to useful tips and guides for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS and Windows Phone. Read more...